This incident was a massacre of Aboriginal people carried out by another Aboriginal group armed with muskets. The account was provided by J.M. Clow in 'Letters from Victorian Pioneers', 'After four days' march through the barren mountains which separate Western Port district from Gippsland, then on the fifth day sighted the smoke of some fires on the skirts of the beautiful pastoral district there. On the following day, about mid-day, they surprised the camp, making prisoners of all in it, which consisted only of some old men and some children. They then went in search of the able-bodied men whom they espied busily fishing on the banks of a large river not far off. They managed to sneak up on them within ten or twenty yards, and then blazed into them, killing and severely wounding every one of them, seven in number. Those who escaped the first volley jumped into the river and swam across, but the second volley brought them all down. After cutting out their kidney fat, they took as much of the carcasses as they could carry on their return route, and having mustered their forces at the camp where they had captured the old men and their children, they dispatched them also, and then commenced their retreat' (Clow cited in Bride, 1983, p 359).

In October 1840, according to Pepper and de Araugo, 1985, p 18, squatter Angus McMillan 'brought down cattle from Numblamungie to the stock run at Nuntin' in Gippsland. 'He left his men in charge there and on his return some weeks later they told him that the Kurnai had scattered the stock and attacked them. McMillan gathered his stockmen together, and massacred any Kurnai' [possibly Gunnai or Tatungalung or Braiakaulung speakers] at Boney Point on the confluence of the Avon and Perry Rivers. When GA Robinson traveled through this area on 2 June 1844, he saw an Aboriginal cranium on the shore of Lake Wellington just below the entry of the Avon River into the lake (Robinson in Clark, 1998d, p 89). In a letter to Lieutenant-Governor La Trobe on August 25, 1853, McMillan acknowledged that two attacks by Aboriginal warriors on his stockmen had taken place in October and November 1840 but did not reveal the aftermath (Sayers, 1983, p 218). In 2001 historian PD Gardner considered that at least 15-20 Aborigines were killed in a massacre in reprisal for the Aboriginal killing of two stockmen (Gardner, 2001, pp 44-49).

According to Gippsland historian Peter Gardner, after 'the Kurnai speared cattle on the Avon River,' in 1841, a reprisal party of 12 armed settlers pursued them on horseback and after 'crossing the Mitchell, Nicholson and Tambo Rivers,' eventually trapped them at Butchers Creek, a small inlet of Lake Victoria just to the east of Metung, where they were slaughtered. The details of the massacre were later provided by Colin McLaren, one of the killers. The other killers 'were Angus McMillan, Dr Arbuckle, Tom Macalister, Colin Macalister, McDonald, Bath, Conners, Lawrence, Gilbert and at least two Omeo Aborigines.' According to Gardner, 'This list is by no means exhaustive, it being possible that Ronald Macalister was also an early participant' (Gardner, 2001, pp 49-52).

The massacre was originally reported by Aboriginal Protector GA Robinson in Report of a Journey of Two Thousand Two Hundred Miles to the Tribes of the Coast and Eastern Interior during the Year 1844, George Mackaness published the report in 1941 (Mackaness, 1941, p 13). Ian D. Clark provided more detail of the massacre when he published GA Robinson's Journal, dated 15 June 1844, in 1998 and included the following account, 'Two miles above the crossing place up the stream is the spot where a great slaughter of Gipps Land blacks by the Omeo and Mokeallumbeets and Tinnermittum, their allies, took place: was shown the spot by [the Aboriginal guide]... Charley who was present. Saw the human bones strewed about bleached white.... Charley spoke of it with zest went through the whole scene shewed (sic) the camp of wild blacks upwards of 70 camped beside a fire. Canal of still water in bed of Tanbo (sic) 30 feet wide 500 long. Shew how the black[s] found in line, then gave yell; the point of attack; spoke of it with zest; five young women were spared but I believe killed some time after. All the old women and children were killed' (Clark, 1998d, p 102 ).

According to an account sent to Gippsland historian Peter Gardner by settler Ray Scott, a massacre of Kurnai people took place at Hollands Landing in late 1842, when they congregated at the site and were fired at by a cannon from a ship anchored nearby. Years later, Scott's grandfather met some Aboriginal survivors who told him of the incident. Following the killing of two shepherds at Lindenow station, 'an organised and co-ordinated drive' was organised by the owners of Lindenow, involving 'a boat with one of the Clonmel cannon mounted in its bow, and was probably manned by men from the Strathfieldsaye run...those driving across the land, on the west from Strathfieldsaye and the north and east from Lindenow, no doubt were directed by the "notorious" Frederick Taylor.' Carried out by Angus McMillan; John McLennan, overseer at Hart Run; one of the Loughnan brothers at Lindenow run; William Pearson, squatter of Kilmany Park; John Reeve, squatter of Snake Ridge; Captain Orr of Orr's Survey near Port Albert; RB Sheridan, overseer for William Odell Raymond.

Bruthen Creek is one of the Warrigal Creek group of massacres.
In 1845 William Thomas, the Assistant Protector of Aborigines recorded in his journal a conversation with a man called Hatcher: 'He said he [Hatcher] and another man had come unarmed from Gippsland. I asked him if he was not afraid of meeting the Blacks, his reply was, Blks Sir no fear of them now they would run away as soon as they see a white man but there are not many left, he said he had a Brother who had been in Gippsland from the first his name was Bunton & kept a Public house in Gippsland by the Dirty Water Holes & a cattle station joining to Mr. McAllister who was killed, that after Mr. McAllisters murder great slaughter of the blacks took place and that on his brothers station a cart load of Blks bones might be gath.rd up' (Thomas, cited in Caldow, 2020 and cited in Gardner, 1994, p 51).
Caldow (2020) and Gardner (2022) concur that the station where bones 'might be gath.rd up' referred to in Thomas's journal is Hatcher's brother-in-law Buntine's run at Bruthen Creek.

In early July 1843, Donald Macalister, the nephew of squatter Lachlan Macalister, was killed by Aboriginal people, near Port Albert in Gippsland. According to GA Robinson, who first heard of Macalister's killing from Crown Lands Commissioner Charles Tyers on 19 May 1844,' Mr McAllister was murdered about six months ago by the natives; he was alone it seems and on horseback and supposed riding serenely along and E.H. the black took him by surprise or he must have been parleing with them a the time it happened. He had a brace of pistols in his holster, [when] his body was found, he was on his way to the Port [Albert] with cattle in short way on ahead' (Robinson 19 May 1844, in Clark 1998d, p.56).
After being visited by Thomas McAllister and Mr McMillan at Foster's, Robinson remarked in his journal on 1 June, 1844, 'Reginald McAllister was the gentleman killed by natives; they are supposed to have killed him with sticks; there was no spear wounds no person saw it done or saw natives; hence there is no direct proof' (Clark, 1998d, p 73). Robinson listed several other colonists killed. According to Gippsland historian Peter D Gardner, Macalister's death was at least the fifth killing of a colonist in Gippsland within 12 months (Gardner 2001, p.53). McMillan had been the first European to the region in 1839, and the earliest runs were established soon after, such that these murders were in direct response to the first few years of colonial incursion.
A visitor to Gippsland wrote in 1843 'I had been informed that ill-blood existed between the blacks and settlers, and that four or five shepherds and stock-men had been murdered; that it was unsafe to travel alone and unarmed in Gipps' Land' (The Courier, 23 Jun, 1843, p 4).
In 1845 William Thomas, the Assistant Protector of Aborigines recorded in his journal that 'He said he [Hatcher] and another man had come unarmed from Gippsland. I asked him if he was not afraid of meeting the Blacks, his reply was, Blks Sir no fear of them now they would run away as soon as they see a white man but there are not many left, he said he had a Brother who had been in Gippsland from the first his name was Bunton & kept a Public house in Gippsland by the Dirty Water Holes & a cattle station joining to Mr. McAllister who was killed, that after Mr. McAllisters murder great slaughter of the blacks took place and that on his brothers station a cart load of Blks bones might be gath.rd up' (Thomas, cited in Caldow, 2020 & cited in Gardner, 1994, p 51).
Macalister's death prompted a massacre of Aboriginal people, most likely at multiple sites around Warrigal Creek. Bell, in 1874, wrote as if the massacre was well known in the colony:
'The historic pen of Victorian settlement would paint with truth the horrors of many a scene of Gipps Land life; and it was in 1843 (the year the will was dated) that the aggressions of the blacks were so frequent. Shepherds worked in pairs, armed, as if in an enemy's country, to resist them ; and it was 1843 that ended by wholesale destruction, the massacres at Warrigal Creek and the Bundalaguah Swamp, where only one aboriginal was left to tell the story of how they died and the history of his race' (The Age, 8 Aug, 1874, p 7).
Dunderdale, writing in the late 1800s, provides the following description of events:
'At this time the blacks had quite recovered from the fright occasioned by the discharge of the nine-pounder gun, and were again often seen from the huts at the Old Port. Donald Macalister was sent by his uncle, Lachlan Macalister, of Nuntin, to make arrangements for shipping some cattle and sheep. The day before their arrival Donald saw some blacks at a distance in the scrub, and without any provocation fired at them with an old Tower musket, charged with shot. The next day the drovers and shepherds arrived with the stock, and drove them over Glengarry's bridge to a place between the Tarra and Albert rivers, called the Coal Hole, afterwards occupied by Parson Bean. there was no yard there, and the animals would require watching at night; so Donald decided to send them back to Glengarry's yards. Then he and the drovers and shepherds would have a pleasant time; there would be songs and whisky, the piper would play, and the men and maids would dance. The arrangement suited everybody. The drovers started back with the cattle, Donald helped the shepherds to gather the sheep, and put them on the way, and then he rode after the cattle. The track led him past a grove of dense ti-tree, on the land now known as the Brewery Paddock, and about a hundred yards ahead a single blackfellow came out of the grove, and began capering about and waving a waddy. Donald pulled up his horse and looked at the black. He had a pair of pistols in the holsters of his saddle, but he did not draw them: there was no danger from a blackfellow a hundred yards off. But there was another behind him and much nearer, who came silently out of the ti-tree and thrust a spear through Donald's neck. The horse galloped away towards Glengarry's bridge.
'When the drovers saw the riderless horse, they supposed that Macalister had been accidentally thrown, and they sent Friday to look for him. He found him dead. The blacks had done their work quickly. They had stripped Donald of everything but his trousers and boots, had mutilated him in their usual fashion, and had disappeared. A messenger was sent to old Macalister, and the young man was buried on the bank of the river near McClure's grave. The new cemetery now contained three graves, the second being that of Tinker Ned, who shot himself accidentally when pulling out his gun from beneath a tarpaulin.
'Lachlan Macalister had had a long experience in dealing with blackfellows and bushrangers; he had been a captain in the army, and an officer of the border police. The murder of his nephew gave him both a professional and a family interest in chastising the criminals, and he soon organised a party to look for them. It was, of course, impossible to identify any blackfellow concerned in the outrage, and therefore atonement must be made by the tribe. The blacks were found encamped near a waterhole at Gammon Creek, and those who were shot were thrown into it, to the number, it was said, of about sixty, men, women, and children; but this was probably an exaggeration. At any rate, the black who capered about to attract young Macalister's attention escaped, and he often afterwards described and imitated the part he took in what he evidently considered a glorious act of revenge. The gun used by old Macalister was a double-barrelled Purdy, a beautiful and reliable weapon, which in its time had done great execution' (Dunderdale, 2020). McMillan showed Robinson his gun on 5 June 1844. It had 'seven barralls (sic): all go off at once' (Clark 1998d, p.94).
A more detailed account of the events was published in The Gap magazine's 1925 edition in an article titled 'Experiences with Gippsland Blacks'. The article on the Warrigal Creek massacre was submitted under the pen name 'Gippslander, Bairnsdale'. Gippslander wrote:
'When Angus McMillan first settled in Gippsland in 1839, the blacks were very numerous, hostile, and treacherous. They speared the stock and attacked the homesteads, and, in some instances, speared some of the hut-keepers. The white settlers retaliated, and there were numerous raids on the blacks, and numbers of them were killed, mostly around McLennan's Straits, Roseneath, and the western shores of Lake Wellington. Getting well into the forties, settlement was taking place south from Sale and north from Port Albert. The blacks were becoming more civilised, and many of them used to congregate about the stations. Shipping was coming from Van Diemen's Land, and elsewhere, bringing in a number of undesirables - "ticket-of-leave" men, or "Vandemonians," as they were called in those days. These men [Vandemonians] were employed by the settlers as hutkeepers, and some of them used to treat the blacks badly, playing all sorts of practical jokes upon them, which in many instances amounted to cruelty. Most of the outrages committed by the blacks at that time were the outcome of some injury, either real or fancied, committed by those men on the natives. The murder of Roland Macalister was in revenge for the throwing of hot ashes on the feet of the natives by Macalister's hut-keeper. Macalister at that time was stationed some distance out from Port Albert and had one of these "ticket-of-leave" men as hut-keeper. The former used to visit Port Albert, returning after dark, and the blacks were aware of this. The hut-keeper, during Macalister's absence, was in the habit of letting the blacks inside the hut. On this particular night, when he wanted them to go out, they refused, so he took some hot ashes, which he threw over their bare feet. In revenge they made up their minds to kill Macalister. Three of them waited for him as he returned, putting three spears through him and killing him at once. Taking most of his clothes and his kidney fat, they made for Warrigal Creek. Macalister's horse, taking fright, galloped off along the road towards Sale, and, next day, was found between Woodside and Sale by Mr. McMillan, who was traveling down the road with cattle. The blacks must have had some way of communicating with the others, for the morning after the murder not a black was to be seen on any of the stations; all had made for Warrigal Creek. The settlers were so enraged at this murder that they determined to give the blacks a lesson, and formed what they called the Highland Brigade. Every man who could find a gun and a horse took chase after the blacks. The Brigade, coming up to the blacks, camped around the waterhole at Warrigal Creek, rounded them, and fired into them, killing a great number. Some escaped in the scrub, others jumped into the waterhole, and, as fast as they put their heads up for breath, they were shot, until the water was red with blood. It was estimated that between one hundred and one hundred and fifty were killed during the progress of the Brigade. I knew two blacks who, though wounded, came out of that hole alive. One was a boy at that time, about 12 or 14 years old. He was hit in the eye by a slug, captured by the whites, and made to lead the Brigade on from one camp to another. He was afterwards adopted by one of the party and was called "Bing Eye." The other was a little older; he made his escape up the creek by swimming and diving. He was shot through the foot, and was so injured that he was called "Club Foot." After this slaughter the blacks kept to the coast, and did not come near the stations for a number of years. The spearing of cattle, however, still went on, and there were still many blacks being killed, principally by the Black Police' (Gippslander, Bairnsdale, 1925).
Dunderdale names Macalister's uncle 'Lachlan Macalister' as having lead the massacre while, Gippslander names 'McMillan'. All accounts indicate that many colonists in the area were involved.
In another reminiscence in the same magazine titled 'My Early Life', Mrs H. Greenwood wrote, 'I remember the blacks killing Mr Macalister, and the subsequent slaughter of the blacks at Warrigal Creek.' Mrs Greenwood says she was born in 1853, some time after the massacre, so she must have meant that she remembered hearing of it, presumably from her father who she said had moved to Gippsland around 1840 (The Gap, 1925, p 11). Historian Peter Gardner notes that the massacre remained widely recognised in the folk history of Gippsland (Gardner, 1983, pp 53-62).
Caldow provides a detailed list of sources for the Warrigal Creek massacre, but is dismissive of the Gippslander's version, relied on heavily by Gardner, largely because it is published in a magazine for children (Caldow, 2020). Gardner has replied to Caldow in detail (Gardner, 2022). The intended readership of The Gap is schoolchildren, with a focus on factual education rather than fiction. The story of the Warrigal Creek massacre appears along with other non-fiction articles on diverse topics ranging from ANZAC Day and the use of gas in World War One to beekeeping and the sugar beet industry. These topics are not cast into doubt for being in an educational magazine. As a Gippsland publication, the magazine includes a section providing members of the community an opportunity to contribute their knowledge and reminiscences towards a history of the region. The Gippslander article also mentions other attested violence in Gippsland at 'McLennan's Straits, Roseneath, and the western shores of Lake Wellington', and historical events such as the influx of Vandemonians and the murder of Macalister. Caldow acknowledges that, 'First, using the information Gardner misinterpreted, rejected or missed in Thomas, Dunderdale and Bell, we must accept the possibility or even the probability that an atrocity took place somewhere' and suggests 'Establishing the factual basis of this will require in-depth research to uncover any written evidence before Bell's account from 1874, as well as archaeological evidence at locations such as Bruthen Creek and Bundalaguah Swamp' (Caldow, 2020).
The creeks mentioned in various tellings of the massacre are all relatively close together. This is consistent with Gippslander's statement that the colonists had progressed from one camp to another. This could be seen as a single massacre at multiple sites, referred to by the name of any one of the creeks in the area, or as a group of massacres that were part of a single expedition. Caldow (2020) and Gardner (2022) concur that the station where 'might be gath.rd up' referred to in Thomas's journal is Hatcher's brother in law Buntine's run at Bruthen Creek.
The earliest accounts then give the locations as Bruthen Creek, Warrigal Creek and Gammon Creek. Gardner lists several sites that are mentioned in local folk history and where archaeological evidence has been found. First, Warrigal Creek at a long U shaped waterhole which matches Gippslander's description (Gardner, 1983, p 53). Next, Warrigal Creek mouth, where a large quantity of Aboriginal bones of men, women and children were found with similar skull fractures. This led local historian the Rev. George Cox to conclude that it was not the result of a tribal massacre, but may be a result of the massacres following Macalister's murder (Gardner, 1983, p 53-54). Then Red Hill, where skeletons were found in an upright position, which Gardner regards as inconsistent with traditional Kurnai funereal practice. However, Gardner discounts this site as it is unrealistic that people could have been surrounded and not escaped (Gardner, 1983, p 55). Then Gammon Creek: as well as being named as the location by Dunderdale, there is a strong local tradition that a massacre occurred here (Gardner, 1983, p 56). Finally, Freshwater Creek: an Aboriginal survivor named Darby had told Chas Lucas who told the Rev. Cox this was the location (Gardner, 1983, p 57).
The most likely sites at which people were killed, based on a combination of historical records, archaeology and local oral history is then: Warrigal Creek, Warrigal Creek Mouth, Gammon Creek, Freshwater Creek and Bruthen Creek.
Gardner further notes the rapid decline in numbers of people of the Brataualung Clan of Kurnai Nations: 'Beginning with the pre-white estimates of population at 300-500 the total of these people, within 30 years of the initial white occupation numbered 17. By 1880 there were only two surviving members' (Gardner, 1983, p 58). The determined manner in which these reprisal massacres were carried out and the sudden extreme decline in population indicate that unusually large numbers of people were killed in the Warrigal Creek massacres.

In his review of the various accounts of the Warrigal Creek massacres Gippsland historian Peter Gardner quotes a report that human remains were found at the mouth of Warrigal Creek (Gardner, 2001, pp 53-57). He cites an article in the Gippsland Standard and Alberton Shire Representative in 1912 by the Rev, George Cox, where Cox says that a local teacher, W. H. Thomas, and a friend M had dug up a large quantity of human bones including remains of men, women and children. According to Gardner, Cox says the bones were 'evidently Aboriginal' and adds 'As a result of a careful examination of these it was disclosed that all the skulls were fractured, a piece being broken away at the base of the skull, as though caused by a blow from a tomahawk. Messrs. Thomas and Lamb concluded at first that the remains were those of aboriginals killed in a tribal fight; but that was discounted by the remarkable resemblance of the skull fractures. From Mr. Chas Kuch, senior, they afterwards heard of a massacre of blacks in that neighbourhood. Mr. Thomas suggests that this information may throw light on the scene of the massacre which took place in revenge for the murder of Ronald Macalister' (Cox cited in Gardner, 1983, pp 53-54).
From this description, the regularity of the fractures and their location at the base of the skull are analogous to fractured skulls found in the Cambodian killing fields, described in a 2006 study 'Blunt Force Cranial Trauma in the Cambodian Killing Fields' (Ta'ala et al, 2006). This similarity suggests the possibility that at the mouth of Warrigal Creek victims were restrained and executed with a blow to the head, possibly to save bullets.

Freshwater Creek is one of the Warrigal Creek group of massacres.
According to local historian Gardner, 'The sources for Freshwater Creek as a massacre site are the only ones fully known. The aboriginal "Darby", who escaped the massacre, told an earlier settler, Mr. Chas Lucas, Lucas in turn informed the Rev. G.S. Cox of the Yarram Historical Society. It is for this reason that Freshwater Creek remains a definite consideration' (Gardner, 1983, p 57).

Gammon Creek is one of the Warrigal Creek group of massacres.
According to Dunderdale, following the killing of Donald Macalister, Aborginal people were massacred at Gammon Creek. 'Lachlan Macalister had had a long experience in dealing with blackfellows and bushrangers; he had been a captain in the army, and an officer of the border police. The murder of his nephew gave him both a professional and a family interest in chastising the criminals, and he soon organised a party to look for them. It was, of course, impossible to identify any blackfellow concerned in the outrage, and therefore atonement must be made by the tribe. The blacks were found encamped near a waterhole at Gammon Creek, and those who were shot were thrown into it, to the number, it was said, of about sixty, men, women, and children; but this was probably an exaggeration. At any rate, the black who capered about to attract young Macalister's attention escaped, and he often afterwards described and imitated the part he took in what he evidently considered a glorious act of revenge. The gun used by old Macalister was a double-barrelled Purdy, a beautiful and reliable weapon, which in its time had done great execution' (Dunderdale, 2020).
According to local historian Gardner, 'It is remarkable how the tradition of the massacre at this site has been continued down to the present owners of the property' (Gardner, 1983, p 56).

In 1846, rumours reached Melbourne that a white woman, the possible survivor of a shipwreck on the Gippsland coast, had been kidnapped by Kurnai people and become the trophy of a headman, Bungalene. After the failure of an expedition led by Crown Lands Commissioner Charles Tyers, to find the white woman, two other expeditions were organised. One, a private expedition, led by Christian de Villiers and James Warman, along with six Aboriginal warriors from Westernport, and three from Gippsland and three colonists, Mr Brodie, Mr Peters and Thomas Hill, set off from Melbourne on foot in early December 1846. The other, a division of Native Police led by William Dana left headquarters at Narre Warren east of Melbourne on November 21, 1846. Historian of the Native Police, Marie Hansen Fels who provides the most detailed account of the events at the Snowy River, says that what Dana and his division did in the weeks between leaving Narre Warren and prior to the incident on 20 December is unknown (Fels 1988, p 188). The two parties met up on 15 December at Eagle Point on Lake King, where de Villiers suggested to Dana that they join forces and make the sixty miles journey to the Snowy River by water where it was believed the white woman and Bungalene were camped. But Dana refused and de Villiers and his party left that evening at 6pm (Fels 1988, p.188). Foul weather led de Villiers to split his party in two: Warman and the three colonists would wait until the weather improved and 'proceed then to the Snowy River by boat... while he pressed on overland' with the Westernport and Gippsland Aborigines (Fels 1988, p 188). On 21 December, de Villiers' party came upon Dana and his detachment of Native Police at the Snowy River at the reed beds in Lake Curlip country between Marlo and Orbost. Dana told de Villiers 'that he had surrounded several camps of natives, and taken five prisoners, an old man, and an old woman, and three children.' (Fels 1988, p 189).
Later the Aboriginal guides with de Villiers told him that Dana and his police had shot some of the Snowy River natives (Fels 1988, p 189). The next day the two parties separated, with Dana retracing his steps to the border police station, while de Villiers proceeded up the Snowy River, where his suspicions were alerted by the unusual sight of a large area of 'trampled reed-beds' and finding 'the dead and decomposing body of a very stout Aboriginal male, about thirty years of age,' with severe wounds to the head, leg and breast, 'which his blacks told him were gunshot wounds', inflicted by the Native Police. 'Upon his return to the Tambo River three days later, de Villiers heard from a Richard Hartnett that local Aborigines had said that Mr Dana's party had shot some blacks on the Snowy River.' (Fels 1988, p 189). James Warman, added further details regarding a carbine that he found, belonging to the Native Police, which was 'bloodied and broken, with tufts of black hair clinging to it' (Fels 1988, p 189).
Corporal Owen Cowan, a border policeman who accompanied Dana and the Native Police, said that on 19 December, he had 'a hand to hand struggle' with the Aborigines, and that 'he was speared in the hand, knocked to the ground and that he had lost his carbine, fired his pistol, then regained his carbine, hit his assailant over the head with it and barely escaped with his life.' (Fels 1988, p 189). He also said that 'At the time, the police force was split three ways around the islands and the lake at the mouth of the Snowy River, and he had only one trooper with him' (Cowan in Fels 1988, p 190). Even so, they 'rushed' an Aboriginal camp but retreated under 'a shower of spears' (Cowan in Fels 1988, p 190). The following night, December 20, Cowan surrounded another Aboriginal camp, 'coming upon' it at sunrise (Cowan in Fels 1988, p 190). But he did not say what happened next. Nor did he say whether the entire group of Native Police were involved, although Dana did say that he considered that this was the only way he could determine whether the white woman from Gippsland was with them (Fels 1988, p 190). Warman's account indicates that at least five Aboriginal people were shot ('Port Phillip Herald', February 25, 1847). Fels is not persuaded that the attack on 20 December constitutes a massacre because only one Aboriginal person was recorded killed and that the number 'became some as the story was transmitted orally, and a slaughter when it appeared in the newspapers' (Fels 1988, p 193). However, she does admit, 'It is not satisfactory now that William Dana's original report (if it existed) is missing' (Fels 1988, p 191). That the missing report did exist is demonstrated by a cover letter from Dana to Police Magistrate Lonsdale, reading, '...a copy of a report of Mr William Dana Commanding 2nd Division Native Police Gippsland respecting a collision with the natives of that District while in search of the white woman...'(Dana to Latrobe, 1847). Commissioner Tyers considered that Dana did not act with prudence and Governor Gipps questioned both Dana's authority for acting as he did and his explanation ��� which was 'Not satisfactory'; he acted 'with great want of discretion, to say the least of it.' (quoted in Fels 1988, p 191).
According to Gippsland historian Peter D. Gardner, the number killed by the native police overall was between 15 and 23 (Gardner 1983, p.72). The event was much debated in the media at the time. Sergeant R. McLelland of the native police argued that one person was killed, and that the eight bodies in a camp that he and the native police and then de Villier came across were not murdered but were being carried around in accordance with Aboriginal funeral customs (McLelland, 16 February 1847). Warman responded that he had never seen more than one deceased person in a camp at one time and suggested Sergeant McLelland explain why there might be eight (Warman, 23 February 1847). A close reading of Warman's published reports indicates that nine Aboriginal people were killed in the period 20-21 December 1846 (Warman, 1847). Twelve years after the expeditions, Crown Lands Commissioner C.J. Tyers, to whom the police involved reported, while answering questions under oath for a Select Committee of the Legislative Council on the Aborigines, stated, "At least fifty were killed by the native police and other aborigines attached to the parties in search of a white woman supposed to have been detained by the blacks, and a few by collision with the white people, from ten to fifteen years ago." (Tyers 1859, p 77)

'Kurnai people were surprised' by a party of stockmen 'while feasting on the banks of the lagoon' behind the rugged limestone outcrop called Pyramids. I [Macleod] killed a bullock for them and they ate until they were sick.' (MacLeod cited in Gardner, 2001, pp 76-78) Then stockmen and Aborigines from outside the region trapped them against a bluff, and 15-20 were shot and killed and the bodies 'thrown in the river at a spot where the river flows under the hill' (Armstrong cited in Gardner, 2001, p 80). It would appear that this massacre occurred before the Brodribb River massacre and was a closely guarded secret. Gippsland historian Peter Gardner suggests that it is possible that an Aboriginal youth, possibly Charlie Hammond, survived the massacre.

On 2 May 1851, station cook Dan Moylan at Macleod's station at Orbost abducted a young girl from the Krauatungalang people, tied her up and over the following three days, raped her. Her people tried to rescue her but Moylan kept them at bay with his gun and the hot coals he scattered around the outside of the hut. Eventually they killed Moylan with spears, rescued the girl and burnt down his hut. News of Moylan's killing quickly spread through the white community. According to Pepper and De Araugo, (1985, pp 99-101) the settlers took the law into their own hands, and with the assistance of Aboriginal warriors from the Mitchell River, tracked Moylan's killers to Milly Creek where it runs into the Brodribb River. There they 'cleaned up the tribe' but two boys including Harry Darramungie were lucky to get away and others swam the Snowy River to Lake Watt Watt. However the settlers followed them to Buchan where more white men joined the party and eventually found their prey camped near The Pyramids. They then drove the Aboriginal people over the cliffs to the Murrindal River below and their remains are believed to lie at the base of Limestone Cliff.